(Forgotten Realms #2, The Icewind Dale Trilogy #1)
(First published 1988)
The bumbling wizard
apprentice Akar Kessel is transformed into a tyrant when he discovers a
millennia-old artefact of incredible power. Crenshinibon – the Crystal
Shard – is a sentient relic that grants huge power to its wielder even
as it bends them to its will. The frozen tundra soon shakes beneath the
feet of the goblinoid army raised by Akar Kessel as he prepares to
conquer the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale. Only a small band of heroes
stands in his way: The strange drow, Drizzt Do’Urden, who has rejected
the evil ways of his kind; the exiled dwarven king, Bruenor
Battlehammer; and Bruenor’s indentured ward, Wulfgar, a mighty barbarian
whom Bruenor spared in years past.
R. A. Salvatore’s debut
novel, The Crystal Shard was originally intended to be set in the
Moonshae Isles, before Salvatore discovered that the Forgotten Realms
were in fact much larger than he had assumed. He then shifted the story a
thousand miles north to Icewind Dale. Informed by his then-editor that
they could not use one of his characters, Salvatore came up with the
character Drizzt Do’Urden on the spot. These two decisions, seemingly
arrived at by happenstance, would help establish Salvatore as a multiple
New York Times bestselling author with over 20 million books sold. He
is, by far, the top-selling Forgotten Realms author and has likely done
more to establish the popularity of the setting than anyone besides Ed
Greenwood.
It’s easy to be sniffy about The Crystal Shard. Some
of the writing is clunky, as you might expect from a debut novel. The
characters are largely archetypal and some of the plot developments are,
upon a moment’s consideration, a little far-fetched even for a high
fantasy novel. It’s what Salvatore does with these characters, the
slight subversion he brings to the usual stereotypes, that fills them –
and hence the story – with energy and pizzazz. This is helped in no
small part by the excellent combat descriptions and Salvatore’s deep yet
respectful borrowing of D&D lore. As with the first Realms novel,
Darkwalker on Moonshae, the setting itself is also a star here. There’s a
deep sense of hardship and loneliness on the frozen tundra of Icewind
Dale. The isolated people of Ten Towns, the unforgiving nature of their
fishing-based economies in the inhospitable cold - these create an air
of desperation that wonderfully complements the story.
Drizzt is,
of course, Salvatore’s (and the Realms’) most iconic creation – yet in
The Crystal Shard he is a side character, something of an enigma whose
true depths are only hinted at. Bruenor Battlehammer, the surly dwarf,
is an unlikely friend and yet it’s because he is so unlikely we know
that these characters have more going on than meets the eye. Bruenor’s
interactions with Wulfgar are amusing but also, remarkably, occasionally
touching. Torn between his loyalty to his barbarian people and the
dwarf who taught him how to be a better man, Wulfgar’s coming-of-age arc
is ultimately the heart of the novel. Yet there is so much else - from
Drizzt’s mysterious past to the banishment of Bruenor’s clan to the
hints of romance between Bruenor’s adoptive daughter Cattie-Brie and
Wulfgar - that infuses the story with intrigue. Even the late mention of
Artemis Entreri, who would himself become one of fantasy’s most
infamous assassins, seizes the reader’s attention with an iron grip.
On
the subject of Cattie-Brie, it’s unfortunate to note that she literally
is the only female character in the entire novel – and her role in this
one is fleeting at best. This is perhaps the most male-dominated
fantasy novel I’ve ever read, or at least that I can remember reading.
Of course, the author makes amends (and then some) with the fantastic
Dark Elf Trilogy, still his crowning achievement. Just don’t come into
this book looking for any kind of female representation. One thing I’d
like to touch on is the graphic level of violence in The Crystal Shard.
The body count runs to the thousands, with women and children ruthlessly
cut down by goblinkin and monsters getting disemboweled, decapitated
and gleefully slaughtered with a wild abandon that surprised even me, an
author of “grimdark” fantasy! In one scene, Wulfgar literally crushes
another man’s skull in his bare hands. I think it’s the contrast between
the unshakeable belief of the heroes, and their ruthless use of
violence, that is so disquieting. Unlike in most grimdark novels where
everyone seems to accept or at least suspect they’re an utter bastard,
Drizzt and co cleave, dice, and otherwise murder their enemies with
utter conviction in their own righteousness. These are monsters - ergo,
they deserve to die.
And ye gods, there are a lot of monsters in
The Crystal Shard. D&D fans, particularly Dungeon Masters, will
cackle with glee at the iconic nasties that show up only to be summarily
dispatched by our heroes. Taking a leaf out of Darkwalker on Moonshae
and its firbolg giants, R. A. Salvatore’s verbeeg are nine feet of
cretinous stupidity who can seemingly kill themselves simply by getting
out of bed awkwardly. Look beyond the verbeeg, though, and you have
demons, dragons, hell hounds, and more goblinkin than you can shake a
stick at.
All in all, The Crystal Shard is a novel in which
everything somehow comes together, despite some occasional clumsiness.
It packs an incredible amount of worldbuilding, action and - yes - even
character development into its relatively short running time. More than
this, it does an admirable job of setting the stage for the dozens of
novels that would come after, many by the same author. It is,
therefore, a resounding success by any measure. Essential reading for
any Forgotten Realms fan - and recommended to anyone who likes bloody,
action-driven fantasy.
**** out of *****
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